Tag: David Messina

Comic Book Review – Star Trek The Next Generation – Hive

Star Trek The Next Generation – Hive is the full story (all four issues of HIVE, as originally published), weighing in at a hefty 106 pages.Star Trek TNG – HIVE Comic Book
We first meet Locutus of Borg, for he is what Jean Luc Picard has become. No sooner do we learn he has a mission, than the story skips 500 years back to the time after he first returned to the federation as Jean Luc.

We are taken into memes more commonly seen in fantasy than SF – alternative timelines, parallel worlds, other realms (and the demons who live within); all far beyond that seen in the Q days, and further still than from within the likes of Babylon 5.

Swiftly reintroduced are a range of familiar characters – seven of nine is the Borg Ambassador, Riker is a Captain, Data is reborn as Borg; and the ubiquitous Dr Beverly Crusher. A fresh character appears, a Lieutenant whose brother was also assimilated at an unspecified time in the past.

The sequence flips back and forth in time, with clever use of parallel panels and cross break speech bubbles to show the same character spilt across two different time streams, and to visually and verbally smooth the passage between the two. It soon emerges that there has been a massive Borg ‘trick’ and we move into the realms of concurrent time streams where the future intervenes & uses temporal anomalies to time travel and destroy themselves as the strip hops back and forth, with fewer panels between.

The result is a balancing of worlds, and a return to the expected past and future, thus preserving the space-time continuum and the canon of Star Trek: The Next Generation as a whole.

Star Trek The Next Generation – Hive has artwork, by Joe Corroney and David Messina (with colours by Ilaria Traversi and Hi Fi) which is superb and makes good use of the verve and pace supplied by writer Brannon Braga. However this is firmly aimed at the 18+ end of the comics market, and contains themes that might be considered unsuitable for a younger person.

STAR TREK: COUNTDOWN TO DARKNESS, the official prequel series to Paramount Pictures’ upcoming movie, Star Trek Into Darkness. Like the best-selling Countdown series before it, COUNTDOWN INTO DARKNESS will be the only place for fans to experience the events that set the stage for J.J. Abrams’ sequel to the 2009 blockbuster film Star Trek.

Written by Mike Johnson with a story by Roberto Orci and art by David Messina, this 4-issue miniseries will lead directly into the May release of Star Trek Into Darkness, bridging the gap between the two films and giving fans an exclusive peek at the film’s mysterious story.

“We were thrilled by the reception that the original Countdown prequel comic received in 2009,” says Johnson. “We’re excited to be working again with David Messina and the team at IDW to bring fans an all-new original story that leads directly into the next film. Star Trek is back in a big way in 2013!”

Packed with the high-stakes adventure and sci-fi intrigue that has made the Star Trek franchise a global institution, STAR TREK: COUNTDOWN TO DARKNESS is sure to delight the legions of fans anxiously anticipating the continuing adventure of the intrepid crew of the USS Enterprise.

STAR TREK: COUNTDOWN TO DARKNESS #1 ($3.99, 32 pages, full color), licensed by CBS Consumer Products, will be available in stores in January 2013.

“STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS” is written by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman & Damon Lindelof, based upon “Star Trek” created by Gene Roddenberry, and directed by J.J. Abrams. Abrams will also produce with Bryan Burk through Bad Robot Productions, along with Lindelof, Kurtzman, and Orci.